FROM time immemorial it has pleased Almighty God in His plan for the redemption of mankind to attach certain graces to particular places, times or circumstances. For instance, Jordan and Bethsaida were places specially favored under the new dispensation, besides certain means of grace, pre-eminently the reception of the Holy Sacraments. In the same manner Our Lord, in reference to the veneration of His Sacred Heart, has vouchsafed to give the preference to three devotional exercises by the promises and privileges attached to them.

(a) Referring to the festival He desired to be celebrated in honor of His Sacred Heart, in one of His apparitions to His servant, He said: '' I desire that the first Friday after the octave of Corpus Christi should be made a particular feast whereon in honor of My heart the faithful should receive holy communion and offer a solemn act of reparation for the injuries and insults offered to Me during the exposition of the Blessed Sacrament upon the altar. For this I promise you that I will open My heart , and pour out the abundant riches of divine love upon all who themselves pay, or induce others to pay, this tribute to My heart.''

(b) Referring to the communion on the first Friday of nine consecutive months, one Friday, at the time of receiving communion, St. Margaret Mary thought that she heard Our Lord speak thus: "In the excessive loving-kindness of My heart I promise you that in virtue of its omnipotent love, the grace of final perseverance shall be granted to every one who for nine consecutive months shall communicate on the first Friday in the month; they shall not die out of a state of grace, nor without having received the sacraments, and in their last moments My Divine Heart shall be their secure refuge

(c) Referring to the veneration of the picture of the Sacred Heart, Our Lord declared that through this, His heart as the source of all blessings, He would pour out graces on all places where, in order to promote the love and veneration of that benign heart, the picture of it should be exposed; that He would establish peace in the families where this was done; that He would protect those who were in tribulation; that He would pour out the unction of His burning love on all confraternities by whom this picture was honored; that, if any who were devout to this picture should lose His grace by sin, He would avert from them the chastisements of divine wrath and bring them back to a state of grace.
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(Adapted from “The Glories of The Sacred Heart Of Jesus” by Rev. M. Hausherr, S.J.)